Magne Klann and Lars Aurtrade’s “Piip-Show” (screenshot via Laura J. on Twitter)
As Hyperallergic’s self-appointed cat correspondent, I feel an occasional duty to branch out and offer you more from the always colorful intersection of art and animals. Turns out it’s a good week for that. Today: a man living inside a bear carcass and a coffee shop for birds — both of which are being live-streamed.
Abraham Poincheval’s “Dans la peau de l’ours” (screenshot via @berpasc on Twitter)
In Paris, at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Nature and Hunting), whose contemporary art program we’ve covered before, performance artist Abraham Poincheval has taken up residence for 13 days inside a sterilized bear carcass. By “taken up residence,” I mean that Poincheval won’t leave; he will eat, sleep, and shit in there (I suppose it won’t stay sterilized for very long). The artist, as you might have guessed, isn’t a stranger to these types of actions; he once buried himself under the steps of the town hall in Tours, France, for eight days. Poincheval sees the performance, titled “Dans la peau de l’ours” (In the skin of the bear), as a way of “becoming animal,” according to the press release. I’m not entirely sure how that’s supposed to work, since bears don’t live in cramped quarters under constant surveillance — wait, I guess that does sound suspiciously like the zoo. Alright, alright, I’ll give it a shot. Watch the live-stream here.
Meanwhile, in Norway, a squirrel walks into a bar … no, really. A squirrel did kind of walk into a bar, and you will not believe how awesome it is.
Squirrel in the bird bar! (screenshot via NRK Piip-Show on Twitter)
The bar is actually an elaborate bird feeder created by photographer Magne Klann and illustrator and model maker Lars Aurtrade. “Piip-Show” (“beep-show,” according to Google Translate) looks like a swank coffee shop you’d find in Oslo (or ‘Oslo,’ Brooklyn), except, you know, it’s for birds. Like Poincheval with his extreme performances, Klann is a veteran of his field; in 2003 he created a bird feeder that looked like a dollhouse. The Norwegian broadcasting network, NRK, live-streamed that experiment then, and they’re responsible for the current live-stream of “Piip-Show,” with the help of trip-planning website UT.no. The homepage for “Piip-Show” includes a fun (and educational) “Ask ornithologists!” component, but watching the birds up close, and hearing their sounds, is undoubtedly the best part. Technology is amazing, folks. Good luck getting work done ever again.
Bear h/t artnet News, birds h/t @hindmezaina
